Soybean prices during the last five months of the 2015-16 marketing year averaged much higher than during the first seven months of the year. For example, the average daily bid price at central Illinois locations was $8.67 during the first seven months and $10.28 during the last five months of the year. Those daily prices ranged from $8.40 on March 1, 2016 to $11.58 on June 30, 2016. Through the first half of the 2015-16 marketing year, the soybean market traded on the basis of prospective year ending stocks of U.S soybeans of 450 to 460 million bushels. The [...]

The U.S and world soybean situation continues to be one of surplus. The USDA's WASDE report of March 9 projected 2015-16 marketing year ending stocks of U.S. soybeans at 460 million bushels, 10 million bushels above the February projection. The projection of world ending stocks, with stocks for Argentina and Brazil adjusted to an October-September marketing year, was lowered by 57 million bushels, but those stocks are still expected to be record large. At the projected level, U.S. stocks would represent 12.5 percent of projected use for the year. Stocks as a percent of use have been larger on numerous occasions, [...]